Adele joined James Corden on The Late Late Show for his last Carpool Karaoke episode, and things got emotional.
The talk show host’s show is wrapping up this week, but he’s going out on a high note with a slew of star guests.
Adele, 34, broke into James’ room and woke him up by slamming a set of cymbals as he lay in bed, stating she was going to ‘drive’ him ‘to work’ in a video posted on Monday.
The rambunctious couple then stepped into her car, at which point Adele acknowledged she’s not a “brilliant driver,” which was maybe not the ideal time to make the admission.
In fact, she nearly crashed only seconds after starting the engine, drawing a gasp from James, 44, who cackled.
For the final Carpool, James reflected on his ‘wild’ eight years on the programme, while Adele expressed her’very, very sorrow’ to see him go, having never lived in LA without him there.
On their way to the studio, the couple sang out a slew of Adele’s best singles, including Rolling in the Deep and I Drink Wine, in typical Late Late flair.
The latter prompted Adele to admit that the first lyric of I Drink Wine was inspired by a discussion she had with James.
And the tears began to fall!
‘It was like, January 4, 2020, and we’d been on vacation together with the kids and we were on our way home and my mood had changed and it was the first year that I felt like I had to hold myself accountable for being an adult, I’d just left Simon (her ex-husband),’ she began.
‘And you and Jules (his wife) were so integral in looking after me and Angelo (her son) and you used to do it with humour as well, you used to be like, “Good luck with that one!” with anything I was pursuing and you were always an adult to me.’
She added to James: ‘I remember I said to you on the way home, “What’s wrong?” and you let it all out, you didn’t feel strong, and we had a six-hour conversation the whole way home.’
James chimed in: ‘It was work stuff, the internet, all those things…’
‘It got me thinking, I felt so unsafe with you feeling unsafe,’ Adele continued. ‘Because you’d always been like, since I was 21! You’d been there. And I went to the studio a couple of weeks later and I sang it into my phone and sent it to you and you said, it was exactly how you were feeling.’
‘It was everything that I was feeling that day. I was floored by how you’d managed to take everything that I was feeling about myself and life and just put it in a verse and it’s the greatest privilege that something from a conversation so honest, between two friends, that you created such a thing,’ James praised.
The lyrics in question include lines such as: ‘How can one become so bounded by choices that somebody else makes? How come we’ve both become a version of a person we don’t even like?’
In a genuinely memorable moment, Adele and James shouted out the song while crying.
After they finished their voyage, James reflected on his experience on the programme, stating it felt like a ‘family’ unit and that he would miss ‘everything’ about it.
‘More than anything, I will just miss going into work with my friends every day,’ he confessed.
‘And I’m really gonna miss Los Angeles. I love it here. It’s been a brilliant adventure but I’m just so certain that it’s time for us as a family, with people getting older and people that we miss, it’s just time to go home.’
They then blasted Hometown Glory in a fitting end note, before shedding some more tears as Adele declared: ‘You’re one of my best friends in the whole world.’
‘I love you and we have had the best time here,’ he added, to which Adele agreed: ‘Oh my god, we really have.’
‘The crazy thing is, I’m gonna see you tomorrow!’, James finished, as the duo burst into laughter for one final time.
James, who took over The Late Late Show from Craig Ferguson in 2015, announced his resignation nearly precisely a year ago.
He’ll return to his own country later this month to spend more time with his family after his farewell episode airs on April 27, with Harry Styles and Will Ferrell scheduled to appear.
